Musical diplomacy as New York Phil plays Pyongyang

PYONGYANG (Reuters) - Cold War foes the United States and
North Korea enjoyed a rare moment of harmony on Tuesday when
the New York Philharmonic played an unprecedented concert in
the hermit state.

An audience of North Korea's communist elite gave America's
oldest orchestra a standing ovation after a rousing set that
took in Dvorak, Gershwin and a Korean folk song. Some of the
musicians were so overcome they left the stage in tears.

"Little did we know that we would be thrown into orbit by
this stunning, stunning reaction," said Lorin Maazel, the
Philharmonic's music director.

North Korea's solitary television station broadcast the
concert live to a population taught during 60 years of
animosity to view all things foreign with deep suspicion --
especially from the United States, officially their darkest
enemy.

"We Koreans fully appreciate the performance this evening
by the New York Philharmonic, not just as an art performance,
but as the good feelings of the ordinary citizens of the United
States toward the Korean people," said Pak Chol, the North's
counselor of the Korea-Asia Pacific Peace Committee.

The concert was born out of talks last year on ending the
impoverished North's nuclear arms program in exchange for aid
and the promise of opening doors to the outside world that have
been shut due to its defiant behavior.

CULTURAL OVERTURES

The Bush administration in public played down the
significance of the concert and White House spokeswoman Dana
Perino said any future cultural exchanges would depend on North
Korea's cooperation on the nuclear issue.
Continued...